You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the rich out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply the wealth by dividing it.
I’ve seen Tesla live a couple times, and while they used to be a band I liked and enjoyed, since their 2004 album “Into the Now” they’ve grown to become one of my favorite bands.
What I like about Tesla is that they’re just a rock band. They just make good music. There’s no trend to follow, there’s no real concern of press or image or whatever. They just make music. I also have a great deal of respect for how their now run their business: embracing the Internet; using techniques and strategies to connect with fans; and doing so much of things themselves and showing you can be successful at this. As example, check out their latest video for their new single “Fallin’ Apart”. The band posted this video to their YouTube channel, they allow embedding (many of your big record companies won’t do this for whatever reason… I guess they don’t like free press). Of the video they write:
“Fallin’ Apart” which we wrote, directed and produced ourselves! This is the first time that we took one of our ideas for a concept video and found actors, locations, props, and put it all together making a concept music video. Our friend Ken Nicholson who has helped us produce videos in the past found an amazing camera crew, and we found Daniel Espinoza and Scheilah Magnolias to play the roles. The 1956 Ford Tbird was found by Robbie Furiosi at one of his friend’s auto shops called Check Engine Automotive, and he and Larry drove the car down in the freezing cold for 2 days..thanks guys!
They did a great job with it. Check it out:
What really strikes me about Tesla is their songwriting, especially how positive so much of their music is. Check out this article from Brave Words and Bloody Knuckles. Guitarist Frank Hannon breaks down each song on their new album “Forever More” and you’ll see how many songs have positive and uplifting messages. Nothing is cheesy or preachy either. And this goes back to songs like “Caught In A Dream” and “What You Give”, which I find to have a truly beautiful message.
It’s hard for me to pick out a single Tesla song that I like. So many good songs, so many strike a chord. But off their new album, there’s a song called “Just In Case” which really does hit home with me. Here are the lyrics:
Outside the sky is blue;
Always try to do my part
But now it’s raining in my heart.
There’s just so much I can do.
It’s really got a hold of me,
It’s why I feel so incomplete.
If life’s a broken band,
Only I would understand,
I’ll be more than glad to join right in.
If only I could pray,
I know what I would say:
“To whom it may concern”
Just in case I don’t make it to Heaven,
I’d like to personally thank you for givin’
Somethin’ so beautiful
Makes life worth livin’, yeah.
Thank you just in case I….
I’m trying once again,
But everytime I try to talk to You
It’s like I never seem to get through.
I never had the strength to ever put my faith in You.
Maybe I should just realize
I don’t deserve you in my life.
They say it’s in Your hands,
That everything’s just like You planned.
It’s good enough for them, so why not me?
If only I could pray,
I know what I would say…
(I’d say) “Dear God, I’m talking to ya”
Just in case I don’t make it to Heaven,
I’d like to personally thank you for givin’
Somethin’ so beautiful
Makes life worth livin’, yeah.
Thank you just in case I….
Soon enough the time will come.
The hour’s getting late,
The sun is settin’ fast and
You’ll be standing by the gate.
I’m sure You’re gonna say to me,
“Somewhere, couldn’t you just relate?”
I’ll say, “To tell You the truth, You know I already do
In so many other ways.”
Just in case I don’t make it to Heaven,
I’d like to personally thank you for givin’
Somethin’ so beautiful
Makes life worth livin’, yeah.
Thank you just in case I….
Just in case I don’t make it to Heaven,
I’d like to personally thank you for givin’
Somethin’ so beautiful
Makes life worth livin’, yeah.
Thank you just in case I….
I don’t make it
Good stuff. Tesla is certainly a band that, in my book, ranks pretty high.
The Wall Street Journal has an article on new calls for the “assault-gun ban.” And they seem to get a few things right, but much of it is the same old misconceptions. But you know, I can understand this. Recall, I used to be in the camp of the ignorant so I can understand where all this comes from.
…assault weapons, or guns that can fire rounds more quickly than standard weapons
Oh, so that is what an assault weapon is. So pray tell me, what exactly is a standard weapon? I’d go out on a limb and guess they’d say revolvers would be such a thing, but then you get guys like Jerry Miculik:
So I guess revolvers would be “assault weapons” too. Maybe a standard weapon is your arm throwing a rock?
In November [2008], a record 1,529,635 background checks were performed on firearms sales, up 42% from the same period a year earlier, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. A 24% year-over-year increase followed in December [2008], with similar increases so far this year [2009].
Background checks are considered a measure of sales because they are required during any sale of a new weapon from a federally licensed retailer, or if a weapon is sold or reclaimed from a pawn shop.
I admit I don’t know how it works in other states (tho I reason it’s the same since the 4473 is a Federal form), but I know here in Texas if you have a concealed handgun license you can just show your license and they skip the background check. Why? Because if you have a valid concealed handgun license you’ve been background checked far more extensively and thoroughly than the “insta-check” does, and that you still have the license means you’re still in good standing. So I would reason while the above numbers are certainly a good indicator, I wouldn’t use them as absolutes because with the millions of concealed handgun license holders in this country, I’m sure a few of them bought at least one firearm in the past few months so the real numbers are likely higher.
“Democrats have finally gotten it,” said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. “The message they’ve gotten is if they become gun-control advocates, they are going to suffer at the polls.”
Uh huh. Note that while people love to paint gun-owners as knuckle-dragging Republicans, there are a lot of Democrats that own guns too. Whether their knuckles drag or not remains in question.
When AG Eric Holder stuck his foot in his mouth earlier about bringing back the “assault weapons” ban other top Democrats, like Pelosi and Reid were quick to distance themselves from him. They know they’ll be looking for a new job if they breech the matter. The whole matter of giving Washington D.C. a vote and how that bill has gun rights squarely as an issue within it… the Democrats know how they proceed on this matter will greatly affect their future re-election efforts because how they proceed in it will tell exactly how they feel on the matter. It’s wonderful to watch them squirm. I mean, they love to scream about “rights” and now when something comes along that improves rights that they don’t necessarily care for… oh, how amusing it is.
The weapons used in the Alabama shootings “are military-bred firearms developed for the specific purpose of killing human beings quickly and efficiently,” wrote a coalition of groups, including the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, in a joint release on Wednesday. “Today we call on the U.S. Congress to pass a federal assault weapons ban.”
Of course… the Brady’s. They seem to love to dance on the still-warm graves when they can use it to further their agenda.
But still, tell me… how will banning any sort of gun serve to stop people from going crazy? Look at the UK. Guns are more or less banned; people still go crazy and commit horrible acts. Banning objects does not stop people from going crazy and doing stupid and/or terrible things.
And let’s also ignore something else. Consider the millions of “assault weapons” owned in this country by private citizens. Have we gone crazy? Have we all instantly turned into blood-thirsty maniacs hell-bent on destruction? How many people today didn’t go on a killing spree? We tend to focus on the one that did bad and ignore the millions that do good. Consider this yourself when you’re driving around town. There are hundreds or thousands of other cars on the road all around you. You pay them no mind because they are going about their own business and never tread on you. But then there’s that one asshole that cuts you off and nearly runs you off the road, and that’s the asshole that you focus on and ruins your whole day. Thus because that asshole was driving one of those evil SUV’s (probably painted black at that), we must call for a ban on all SUV’s because of that one asshole that ruins it for the rest of us, right? Is that a logical train of thought?
Under current federal law, anyone over 18 years old can buy a semiautomatic assault rifle from a licensed gun dealer as long as the buyer passes a background check verifying that he or she isn’t a convicted felon or mentally ill, among other things. Unlicensed dealers, such as those at gun shows, may sell semiautomatic assault rifles to anyone of any age without conducting a background check.
So are you saying there’s a problem with current federal law? If you don’t like where the line is drawn, pray tell me where do you want the line to be drawn? Well, we already know that answer… you don’t want a line at all because if there are no guns there’s no line to draw in the first place, right? So if we have no guns, then that means no guns period. Not even for the police, not even for the military. No wait you say? Those people should have guns! Ah, so you see some merit in people having guns. So what sets those particular people apart from the rest of us citizens? A uniform? That the State grants them authoritiy? Ah, a dangerous road we’re heading down.
And those unlicensed dealers? They’re private citizens performing private transactions. If they don’t do it at gun shows, they’ll do it in their homes or at other locations. It doesn’t matter. So you say, ban this too… any/all private sales. So, a father can’t sell or transfer a gun to his son now? But note… no matter what laws you wish to institute, it’s only going to stop the Good Guys, the law-abiding. Once again we must remember that a criminal — by definition — doesn’t obey they law. They will still sell, or more likely steal, whatever guns they want. The laws we have don’t stop criminals from doing bad things, so more laws won’t stop them. You say it’ll make it harder for them to get at things, but anyone with enough determination in this world can get and/or do whatever they want to. You only truly make it harder on the Good Guys. Why would you want to do that?
Hrm… this went on longer than I expected. But it’s the same old things. Folks, it is terrible when someone does a horrible thing like a mass killing. If they chose to use a car and rammed it through a crowded farmers market killing many people, we wouldn’t be calling for a ban on cars. When someone used airplanes and flew them into buildings killing thousands, we didn’t call for a ban on airplanes. But when someone uses a gun, we call for a ban on guns. Why? In any of these cases the object the crazy person used didn’t cause the destruction, it was the crazy person.
Perpetuating lies and misconceptions about firearms does little good. Like any lie, eventually it will be exposed and the credibility of the liar will be damaged, and then your cause will be hurt even more. If you don’t like guns that’s fine, but learn the truth about them. Truth will only serve you better in the long run.
I was working in college radio as the Metal Director. I had cultivated a good relationship with Rita, the radio rep for Big Chief Records. So she tells me all about this band they’ve signed called “dead horse”. Who? Ok, I check it out. The album is “Peaceful Death and Pretty Flowers”. And I tell you, there’s nothing else like it. Not since, not ever again. dead horse are unique in the musical world, and no one comes close to all that their music is and was. It’s hard to describe, you just have to listen. It’s the most eclectic mash-up, yet it works. It’s not trying hard and failing, it’s just a natural thing born in many ways from Texas roots and thus succeeding.
Thing is, at the time I was living in Virginia and I had no idea about the Texas connection (dead horse is from Houston). When I moved to Texas, I still had my dead horse t-shirt. I wear it out every now and again, and no shirt I have garners such interest as that shirt. All sorts of conversations get struck up when I wear the shirt. At concerts, other people start shouting dead horse lyrics towards me and we all bond over our shared interest. It’s a shame they never gained a larger following and success, but on the same token it wouldn’t be the same if they had.
My more recent endeavors in life are amassing lots of stuff. What happens when you acquire stuff? You need a place to put that stuff. Thank you George Carlin:
But instead of going and finding a place to put more stuff, I’m just getting rid of some old shit so I can reuse that storage space for my new stuff. So into the closet I go, figuring out what’s there…. boxes that haven’t been unpacked since moving into the house many years ago, things you can’t remember the last time you looked at. It’s a trip down nostalgia lane.
It’s always an interesting education for my wife and especially my kids when things like this happen. It gives them a peek into the past. For instance, I got to show the kids what a cassette tape is. Even found a player and was able to play some of them… you know, the mixed tapes you’d make, recording your favorite songs off the radio, or when you were really cool and had one of those dual cassette stereo/boom-boxes that could allow you to dub your friend’s purchased album onto a blank tape? or better, the dub of the dub of the dub of the dub such that the tape hiss was the dominant sound you actually heard? Yeah, good times.
Found a lot of old pictures. It’s a shame my scanner died years ago. I need to collect them all and take them somewhere and spend an afternoon just scanning them all in, sending them to old friends and having a good laugh at the memories. Y’know, I think that broken scanner is actually buried in the closet… well, something else to toss (yes, this would go to Goodwill’s electronics disposal center, not the landfill).
Other things I found:
tons of 3.5″ floppy disks. It’s been years since I had a computer that could even read one of these.
tons of CD’s… old CodeWarrior CDs (gazillions of these, from my past life), lots of old Mac software, things that you think for a second might be worth keeping but then you see it requires a 680×0 processor and these new Mac-Intel boxen running Leopard will never grok them
tons of old cassette tapes, from my earliest heavy metal years. Man, I need a way to convert them to MP3’s… too many good and rare albums here.
lots of old computer books
a lot of old vinyl and some neat things too:
Sepultura “Arise” picture disc
Monster Magnet “Superjudge” red vinyl
White Zombie “La Sexercisto” in glow-in-the-dark vinyl
tons of old and rare Red Decibel 7″ stuff from The Coup de Grace, Drop Hammer, Walt Mink, Libido Boyz, Last Crack
The Journey “Raised on Radio” album I won from Power 105 WAVA. I remember waking up, getting ready for my paper route, 5th caller wins, I called in and won not just the album but a key to the “Power Porsche”… a key that could start up a Porsche and if it did it was yours! Sadly, the weekend of the event I had to go on some youth group retreat so I didn’t actually get to try it… I think my Dad and younger sister and cousin went instead. Didn’t win, of course.
Autographed copies of albums from Treponem Pal and Malevolent Creation
Lots of other stuff
Stuff from my old radio days
Promotional materials
band promo pictures
air checks from all the various stations I worked at
carts with my show bumpers on them
posters (many autographed)
A couple boxes of old things from growing up
My 8th grade English class journal
All my homework and papers from Drivers Ed class
An old model kit of an SR-71 Blackbird, and lots of Testors model paint jars
some old t-shirts
a couple cool pencil boxes from Korea, which my kids quickly usurped
A bunch of old birthday cards and letters, a couple of which included hand-written letters from my paternal grandmother… cards I tossed, the letters I kept.
A ton of my old Boy Scouts stuff… from the little advancement/achievement cards for merit badges and rank; certificates of youth leadership training, Patrol Leader, and Senior Patrol Leader; Patrol Leader Handbook; a cool leather “50 mile canoe trip” patch; a bunch of useful handouts and other reading material, good for camping or other outings today (Scouts or otherwise)
8 to 10 (lost count) glasses cases.
One pair of old glasses… plastic frames, huge lenses (to go with the onion on my belt). Put them on, the wife and kids had a good laugh.
Yearbooks from middle school and high school, and a couple from undergrad
band trip pictures
autographed picture of me meeting President Ronald Reagan in The Oval Office
More things that I can remember
A bunch of my old Magic: The Gathering cards. I saw some kid with Magic cards a few weeks ago and I realized that I used to play that game… 15-ish years ago.
And there’s still more stuff to be discovered I’m sure. It’s going to take the rest of today, at least, to get things fully cleaned and reorganized in there.
It’s quite a trip down memory lane. A lot of stuff was junk that was no problem to throw away, but there’s no question some stuff your heart just won’t let you toss. And I know if I really had the gumption there’s a fair lot of stuff I could put on eBay and could make some money with.
So, blogging will be light until this is done.
Updated: added more stuff that I’m uncovering.
Updated 2: Been working at it all day. Donated a LOT of stuff to Goodwill. Threw out a lot of stuff… had to get over the nostalgia of things because if I haven’t looked at it in this many years, do I really need to care and keep it? Many things cleared out. And while I moved a bunch of new things into the closet, in the end there’s a lot more room in there now. So sum total of it all puts me in the negative which is good! Got rid of far more stuff… things are better organized and located now. Big win for all the work done in the last 24 hours. Got some tax deductions from all the donations. Uncluttered. Things are good.
Of course now…. I guess Carlin would say it’s time for me to buy more stuff. 😉
Yeah, I remember those days too, much the same way she does.
You see, that wonderful little “first amendment” mention of “free speech” is there precisely to protect unpopular speech. We don’t need to protect the speech everyone is ok with, we need to protect the speech that some folks might have trouble with.
As I’ve said before, “Freedom is something we must give to others if we wish it for ourselves.” So if you want “free speech”, you have to let others have free speech, even if it’s speech you don’t want to hear.
(Sorry…. I had to turn the music off while watching, but the content is still good.)
This is Master SUH Sung Jin; 8th degree black belt; oldest son of SUH In Hyuk, founder of Kuk Sool Won. This video shows him demonstrating various Kuk Sool forms (hyung):
Oon Hak Hyung, “Crane Over Cloud”. Learned at 5th degree black belt. I’ve seen many perform this form, but the way Master Sung Jin has been performing this the past few years is simply amazing. Beautiful.
Kyuk Pah Hyung, “Power Breaking Form”. Learned at the 2nd degree black belt level. Watch the form and you can see the breaks, the power. I’ve seen many perform this form, but few perform it as well as this.
Ki Cho Hyung, “Fundamental Form”. Learned at the white belt level. This is not an easy form, but is the foundational form upon which all Kuk Sool is built. Master Sung Jin has been performing it recently in demonstrations in this “stylized” manner to help promote improved execution and technique in and of the form.
Gum Moo Hyung, “Sword Dance Form”. Learned at the brown-black level. The speed at which Master Sung Jin’s hands are moving during the middle portion of the form’s execution is amazing. Great relaxation.
Dae Geup Hyung, “Advanced Level Form”. Learned at the brown belt level.
The video is nice in that it is a compilation of various forms demonstrations. But moreso, what I like about this is seeing “other” forms demonstrated. Many times in demonstration what gets demonstrated is the highest-level form the person knows. While that’s nice, us lower-level folk like to see our stuff demonstrated too, but performed at a higher level. It helps you see what the form can look like in an ideal state, or at least give you a more tangible ideal towards which to model and strive your own execution of the form.
First, I think the situation was handled perfectly. Sure he could have taken the simple route and spanked the kid, or “time-out”, or grounded him, but that really wouldn’t directly address the problem. I often find it’s better to address the problem in a manner directly related to the problem. Denying the Xbox for a week wouldn’t address this problem. He was able to help his child see himself, discover his own problem, and correct his problem on his own. All the parent did was be patient and guide.
It’s tough to get people to change by forcing them to change; they’re not necessarily going to change for you. The more successful route to get someone to change is for them to change themselves. It’s tougher for you to do, you really have to take a different tack and approach in guiding them to see things for themselves, but often that’s how things tend to work best.
Of course, there are some things that folks are so emotionally tied up into that getting them to see reason is quite difficult. But just because it may be difficult for you to do doesn’t mean the other person is a lost cause or that it’s not worth making the effort to try. Patience. Devotion.
Stuff From Hsoi 